. >>> al qaeda's on the path to defeat, and bin laden is dead. >> al qaeda has been decimated. >> osama bin laden is dead. >> well, throughout the president's campaign for re-election last year we heard him talk about the decimation of al qaeda. but here's what the president said in his press conference on friday. >> core al qaeda is on its heels, has been decimated. but what i also said was that al qaeda and other extremists have metastasized into regional groups that can pose significant dangers. >> last week the state department closed 19 amererican outposts in the mideast and africa, and they evacuated the u.s. embassy in yemen. this week they warned americans not to travel to pakistan and they evacuated non-emergency personnel from the u.s. consulate in pakistan. all because of terrorist threats. gary burnson say decorated former cia officer who served as station chief on three separate occasions and led several of the agency's most important counterterrorism deployments. he spent his career hunting down al qaeda. he's also the author of a book, "jawbreaker: the attack on bin laden